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Thompson Wants APS Funding Snag Resolved
Tells Education Secretary to
Get the Matter Fixed Before Next Year
HARRISBURG -- Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert J. Thompson, R-19th District, told a
senior Rendell official to resolve the funding problems that are delaying and
reducing payments to the state’s Approved Private Schools (APS).
Senator Thompson told state
Education Secretary Francis Barnes that problems with the system keep arising in
a manner similar to a “Whack a Mole” game at a carnival. “Just when you fix
one, another seems to pop up,” Senator Thompson said, speaking at an
Appropriations Committee public hearing on the proposed 2005-06 Education
Budget.
Senator Thompson led the charge
last year to provide a steady funding source for APS -- which provide
specialized services for mentally- and physically-handicapped young people. Act
70 eased the burden by addressing an auditing requirement.
Now, the Department of
Education is limiting funding to off-set income that APS receive from other
sources. That’s a practice that is only applied to APS, Senator Thompson said.
“We have to have a level
playing field,” Senator Thompson said. “We have a group of institutions which
are providing the most special of special education and we seem to be doing
whatever we can to make their job more difficult. I think it should be a top
priority issue. I don’t want to be bringing it up again next year.”
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